Iran to hang six men publicly

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is to publicly hang five men convicted of carrying out bombings in the southwestern oil city of Ahvaz as well as a militant convicted of involvement in a massacre in the southeast.

Mohammad Ali Surai, Yahya Naseri, Nazem Barihi, Abdolemam Zaeri and Abdolzahra Helichi, were all sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in Ahvaz, the hardline Kayhan newspaper quoted a judiciary official as saying on Sunday.

The paper said the convictions and sentencing were upheld by the Supreme Court.

It did not say when the executions would be carried out, nor which specific bombings the group were linked to. Two Arab separatists have already been hanged over attacks in October 2005, although a further attack took place in January.
Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province and home to a large community of ethnic minority Arabs, has been plagued by a wave of unrest over the past year.

Another man will be publicly hanged for involvement in the killing of 21 people on a highway in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad told the ISNA news agency.

Regime officials had put the blame for the Khuzestan unrest on Britain and its troops based just across the border in southern Iraq. They have also pointed the finger at foreign involvement in the Sistan-Baluchestan unrest.

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."